


Santa's Not Real

by Laurawrzz



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Charades, Childhood, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Special, Fluff, Flying, Santa's Elves, Sledding, Visiting Santa Claus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28307301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: The Doctor’s daughter doesn’t believe in Santa, but that might just be the undoing of Christmas for children all over the Earth.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Santa's Not Real

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4079440) by [Laurawrzz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz). 



> I haven't done an Xmas fic in years! This is unashamed fluff.
> 
> This is technically a Christmas special of a bigger series of mine called Destiny/Memento, but you don't have to have read that. All you need to know is Ten and Rose have a daughter named Leah. For those who do know and are wondering where it comes in the canon, it slots right between Destiny and Paroxysmic.
> 
> It's been a rubbish year, so Merry Christmas and I send happiness and care to all :D

Somewhere in the vast, swirling beauty of the majesty of the time vortex, a type 40 TT capsule resembling a police box was gently leaping through the waves, slipping from timestream to timestream gracefully as it hovered between time and anti-time. Buried deep inside its multi-dimensional interior, a small brunette one-year-old alien girl was sitting on the sofa in one of the twenty living rooms, surrounded by her parents and all of her honorary aunts and uncles. They were all involved in a ridiculous game.

‘Doctor, it’s your turn!’ Uncle Jack said.

Leah looked up at her daddy, who groaned a little, before closing his eyes and sinking back on the sofa. ‘I just did it,’ he complained.

‘Come on,’ her mummy said, and pushed her daddy to force him to stand up.

‘Rose, I can't …’

‘Just do it!’ her mummy interrupted.

He sighed a little, but obediently and dutifully took his place in front of the gathered crowd. Everyone stared at him expectantly as he took a card from the pile for his prompt. He rolled his eyes and slipped it to the bottom of the deck, before turning to the crowd, and making the film gesture.

‘Film!’ everyone chorused.

He raised one finger.

‘One word!’ they all said.

He pointed to himself with his thumb.

‘Err .. “Me”!’ Auntie Martha shouted. ‘No, “you”?’

‘Doctor … Is it Doctor in the House?’ Uncle Jack yelled excitedly.

‘That’s not one word,’ Daddy pointed out.

‘Person! Thing! The Thing!’ Uncle Ianto guessed.

Her daddy continued to jerk his thumb at himself, and gestured to encompass his whole body.

‘Body! Skeleton!’ Auntie Gwen tried.

‘Being, self!’ her mummy said.

He jerked his thumb with more urgency.

‘Clever!’ Uncle Jack shouted. ‘Fast! Sexy!’

‘Err … egotistical!’ Mummy tried.

‘What?’ Daddy complained.

‘Loud! Kinda rude! Is that a film?’ Uncle Mickey wondered.

‘Err … geeky?’

‘Obsessive!’ 

‘Lanky!’ 

‘Frankenstein!?’ 

‘Psycho,’ her mummy added, laughing. 

Her daddy groaned and changed tact, pointing at Leah.

‘Dad! Father! Daughter! Kid!’ Auntie Martha tried again.

‘Knocked Up!’ Uncle Jack shouted.

‘Stop pretending you don’t know it!’ her daddy moaned.

Mummy laughed. ‘Okay, okay, it’s Alien.’

Her daddy breathed a sigh of relief as everyone applauded, and her mummy checked the clock.

‘Oh, it's late,’ she announced. Leah immediately stilled, hoping the grownups wouldn't notice her. She didn’t want to go to bed yet.

‘Want me to take you back to Christmas Eve?’ her daddy asked everyone.

‘Where else would we go?’ Auntie Martha asked seriously.

Daddy shrugged. ‘Christmas Day? It'll save some time.’

Everyone laughed at that. 

'Christmas Eve it is,’ her daddy said, as Mummy looked straight at her.

'Time for bed,’ Mummy said.

‘Naaaah,’ Leah complained, shaking her head.

'C’mon,’ her mummy prompted, ‘if you don't go to sleep, Santa won't come.’

‘Okay, okay, don't bang on 'bout it,’ the one-year-old said, sighing.

Everyone laughed as Daddy scooped her up, and she wrapped her little arms around his neck.

'Say goodnight,’ Daddy said.

'Night night,’ Leah said to them all.

'Night, Leah!’ they chorused.

‘Say thank you to Uncle Jack for taking you sleddin’ today,’ Mummy prompted.

‘Fankoo, Unka Jack,’ Leah said.

‘You’re welcome,’ Uncle Jack replied. ‘Have a good Christmas, Leah.’

* * *

An hour later, Leah was tucked up cosy in bed. Her parents had left and she was in the dark with the cover pulled up to her chin, just where her daddy had left it. She'd had her eyes closed for what felt like forever, but she was too excited to sleep. Just a little bit longer, and finally everything Granny had said about Santa would happen.

She really hoped Santa would remember the Peppa Pig pyjamas. She'd written it on the list for Santa enough times in five different languages, including English, Turkish,  _ and _ Gallifreyan, just to be sure. 

She turned over to reposition herself, and laid there for another ten minutes, but was nowhere near falling asleep - so much so, she started to get a little anxious. She didn't want to be awake when Santa got here. She blinked up at the ceiling, filled with an artificially-created view of the vortex.

Wait.

If they were in the vortex … how was Santa going to get in to deliver the presents? And they didn't even have a chimney, anyway. How was he going to get in? What if Santa couldn't get to her?

Ten more minutes passed as the little girl's mind steadily worked itself up into a frenzy. She had to check with her parents. Maybe they didn't know? Maybe they hadn't thought about that?

She got out of bed and padded down the corridor in a slightly unsteady toddler gait, eventually reaching her parent's bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, and she could hear them talking as she approached.

‘What’s the plan for the presents?’ Mummy asked.

‘I’ll go out later and then put them under the tree,’ her daddy replied.

Frowning, Leah stopped out the door, listening.

_ ‘Please  _ do it right, my mum bigged up Santa so much it’ll be a real letdown for Leah if the presents aren’t there,’ Mummy said.

‘When do I forget to?’ Daddy challenged. ‘This is quite literally the only year we’ve done it because, correct me if I’m wrong, last year she was 2-months-old, the year before that we didn’t have a child, and the year before that I was on the Titanic and you were in a parallel world.’

‘Fair point,’ her mummy conceded. ‘I just want this Christmas to be proper special for her. I know she’s only one but she’s smart enough to know what’s goin’ on and she’ll remember it.’’

‘It’ll be fine,’ he insisted.

There was a pause. Leah frowned. Why was her daddy getting the presents? Was Santa not coming? Did they know he wouldn't be able to get in?

‘Y’know, I’m really glad she believes in Santa,’ her mummy said. ‘I didn’t think she would. Smart genes and all that. She  _ is _ weirdly cynical for a one-year-old. Guess she’ll work out for herself eventually that Santa’s not real.’

Leah froze. Santa … wasn’t real?

‘Won’t be long,’ her daddy said.

‘Just give me as long as we can, please?’ her mummy asked.

Leah’s eyes began to well up with tears.

‘You’ve probably only got another year, then it's going to be hard work,’ her daddy replied.

‘I know, but we can try.’

Leah sniffed quietly. Her daddy looked in her direction. She drew back immediately, hiding behind the wall.

‘Are you sleepin’ tonight or goin’ to do your Tardis thing?’ her mummy asked.

‘I’ll sleep for a bit,’ Daddy replied, walking towards the door. Leah tensed up, but he didn’t come out. The door closed, and the talking muffled.

For a while, Leah just stood there, staring at the wall with tears streaming down her face. After a few minutes, the muffled talking of her parents stopped, and she ran in a hasty waddle back to her room.

She clambered onto her bed, curling up and crying.

Santa wasn’t real.

* * *

Leah was suddenly woken up by the familiar feeling of the TARDIS jolting, in a sure sign that they’d landed somewhere. Bleary-eyed, she checked her clock. The two long sticks on the clock were both pointing up at the twelve. Her slowly developing time sense told her that meant it was either time to eat or time to sleep.

The panicky thought that she’d somehow slept through Christmas morning struck her, which made her get up as quickly as she could. She toddled to her door. It automatically opened and she looked out. The corridor was empty and silent, besides a distant noise that sounded like the door to the outside closing.

Curious, she headed up the corridor to the console room, only pausing to check the living room where her mummy had insisted on putting up a tree. There were no presents underneath it - then again, why would there be? Santa wasn’t real.

She reached the console room. It was empty, with only the TARDIS making its usual whirling and throbbing noises. She walked around the console, bum-shuffled down the step to the ramp, and met the door. 

It took a few tries for her to reach the handle, between falling over and fumbling in slightly stunted coordination to try and grip onto it. Eventually she managed it, and the door swung inwards.

Leah suddenly found herself standing just inside the TARDIS, which was parked in the middle of a beautiful, snow-covered landscape. On either side of her were lines of white dusted trees, forming an aisle leading to a stunning view of a busy village down below with multicoloured lights of red, greens, blues, and yellows twinkling in the distance in a snow-covered scene.

She stepped forward, and immediately squeaked and drew her foot back. She’d just stepped barefoot on snow, so she turned back, and realised her coat, waterproof trousers, gloves, socks, hat, and wellies were still sitting in the corner of the console room from when Uncle Jack had taken her sledding. She went to them, and managed to get the socks half on, her wellies completely on, her gloves on the correct hands, her trousers over her pyjamas, her hat a little skewed on her head, and her coat on, but not buttoned.

Leah toddled back to the door, and stepped out onto the snow where her footstep made a satisfying crunching sound. She took another step, and made her way to the end of the aisle of trees, realising she was at the top of a hill. Looking down, in the near distance she could see two figures standing next to a deflated hot air balloon.

She carefully headed down the hill, until she realised that one of the figures was her daddy, talking to a small person dressed in red and green with a strange hat on. So concentrated on her daddy, she accidentally misstepped, fell over, and ended up scooting on her bum to the bottom of the mini slant.

She was now only twenty metres away from her daddy, but he hadn’t noticed her. Leah got to her feet, and waddled to a nearby tree, hiding behind it so he wouldn’t see her. She poked her head out, her acute gallifreyan hearing picking up the conversation.

‘I’m so sorry, but it's impossible,’ the strangely-dressed man was saying. 

‘I don’t particularly care about internal problems. I’m just here to pick up my daughter’s presents,’ her daddy replied.

‘I can’t help you, I’m so sorry. We’ve had to close the factory to visitors.’

‘What’s the problem?’

‘I’m afraid I can’t discuss the …’

‘Oh, please,’ her daddy interrupted, rolling his eyes. ‘Look, whatever the problem is, maybe I can help?’

The man sighed, pausing before looking around cautiously for any bystanders. Leah shrank back behind the tree immediately. She waited, her breath held, and peeked back out again. The man was leaning to her daddy, whispering something in his ear.

Her daddy’s eyes shot wide open. ‘Really?’ he asked, looking a bit alarmed. ‘Just … gone? Where?

‘We don’t know.’

‘That’s not possible. He can’t just disappear.’

‘Shush!’ the man urged, glancing around again. ‘We can’t let this get out!’

‘What are you doing to find him?’

‘We don’t know what to do.’

Her daddy sighed, looking around. ‘C’mon, there must be a reason he …’

He stopped himself as he saw Leah. The little girl ducked behind the tree again, but within five seconds her daddy was next to her.

‘Leah! What are you doing out here?’ he wanted to know, gazing down at her. 

‘Nuffin’,’ the little girl said innocently.

‘Go back into the Tardis, right now,’ he ordered, pointing.

‘Nah fanks,’ the little girl said, chewing on her hair.

‘Leah, you can’t see this,’ he said firmly.

‘Nah fanks,’ the one-year-old repeated.

‘Leah, you need to go back to bed. Forget about this.’

‘Sanda?’ Leah asked keenly.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ her daddy insisted. ‘Go back to bed.’

‘Nah. Sanda wot?’ she asked.

He paused. 

‘Peas?’ she begged.

After a moment, he pulled a face, and then dropped to her height. ‘... Yeah. Santa has disappeared. He vanished this evening and no one knows where he is.’

‘Oh,’ Leah said, feeling a little confused. If Santa wasn’t real, why was her daddy so worried? ‘We, um, helps?’

‘You’re not helping, you’re going to bed,’ her daddy said firmly. ‘I’ll fix this.’

‘Peas, Dadda,’ Leah begged, fluttering her eyelashes at him and twisting her hands in her coat, looking utterly adorable.

Her daddy tried to shield his eyes to avoid it, but it was too late. He groaned, dropping his head into his hands. ‘Okay … look. You can help. But you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Especially not your mum.’

Leah beamed. ‘Kay!’ she said happily.

‘First thing’s first …’ He reached forward to get her properly dressed, with her socks pulled up, her coat buttoned correctly, and her hat firmly covering her head and ears. Once everything was in place he smiled and nodded approvingly. ‘Right. Let's go.’

He took her hand, and led her back to the strangely-dressed man. ‘Okay, we’d like to investigate the factory,’ he directed to the man.

The man looked awkwardly at her daddy. ‘We can’t allow children to see the …’

‘It’s okay,’ her daddy insisted, pulling out his psychic paper. ‘She’s got special dispensation from the big man.’

The man said. ‘Okay …’ he conceded. ‘But I can’t fly you there,’ he said, gesturing at the deflated hot air balloon. ‘There’s a storm brewing up.’

Her daddy sighed and looked down at the village, sitting at the bottom of a very large hill. ‘Right,’ he said, chewing that over. His eyes suddenly widened, and he threw up his finger, realising. ‘Got it!’ he bellowed. ‘Stay here,’ he ordered Leah, and ran back up the hill to the TARDIS. She waited eagerly, until he returned roughly twenty seconds later holding … was that a sled?

He positioned the sled at the top of the hill, and sat himself on it, beckoning Leah. She giggled again and joined him, sitting on his lap.

‘Ready?’ her daddy asked.

‘Yeah!’ Leah chimed, beaming from ear-to-ear. He briefly readjusted, securing her on his lap, and then pushed.

They momentarily teetered, and suddenly they were off. They sliced their way down the hill, picking up speed with every passing second as they hurtled down; the sparkling village drawing closer and closer. Leah screamed, partially with joy, and partially with fear as her daddy steered perfectly, navigating them around rocks, trees, and bushes, until finally they hit the flat bottom, and he dug his feet in the snow to stop them in a spray of whiteness. The sled juddered to a halt.

'Again!’ Leah chimed happily, clapping together her big mitts.

‘2354 Winter Olympics, Freestyle Downhill Sledding Slalom,’ her daddy said, lifting her off of the sled. ‘I got the gold.’

She giggled as he placed her on her feet, and together they surveyed the scene. There were tiny cars driving around the village, with little men just like the one on the hill at their helms.

'Dadda, they elf?’ Leah asked, pointing.

‘Yep, they're elves,’ her daddy confirmed. 

Leah frowned.

'What?’ her daddy asked, catching her expression.

'Nuffin’,’ the little girl said.

'All right then, first stop, the factory,’ her daddy announced, retaking her hand and leading her towards some huge, colourful building that seemed to dominate the landscape. He led her right to the door, and slammed his clenched fist repeatedly on the metal.

Seconds later, another elf opened the door with a beaming smile. ‘Hello! We’re not taking visitors today, so if you could …’

‘Yeah, hi,’ her daddy interrupted. ‘I’m here to pick up my presents.’

‘They’ll be delivered to your home address as usual, sir!’ the elf insisted.

‘So you’ve not got a problem?’

'No problem here, sir! None at all!’ the elf said quickly, filled with forced optimism. 'We're absolutely fine! Everything's brilliant!’

'I hear you've had to suspend operations,’ her daddy said.

'Just a brief mechanical failure on the present conveyor belt!’ the elf said, persisting with his happiness. 'We'll have it sorted soon, sir!’

‘Well someone must have told me a lie, because I've been informed that Santa has gone miss-’

'Shuuuush!’ the elf interrupted, looking directly at Leah. ‘Not in front of the kiddie!’

Her daddy produced the psychic paper again, wafting it under the elf's nose. ‘Special dispensation, we're actually …’ He checked the psychic paper. ‘... Well, we're actually business partners with Santa. We're … err, taking the franchise of Santa to a new planet. Gallifrey. He asked us to drop in to check your operations.’

The elf took that in, and suddenly looked extremely relieved. ‘Oh, thank Saint Nicholas you’re here, sir! It’s been a terrible mess …’

As the elf led them in and began to explain the situation to her daddy, Leah looked around with interest at the inside of the factory. There were rows and rows of elves in their strange outfits lined up by hundreds of conveyor belts, putting various wrapped gifts of differing sizes into overflowing sacks. There was even a line of elves pushing sweets and small toys into stockings, throwing them into a container that was beginning to get too full.

‘... We’re completely backed up, Santa’s not been back for two hours to collect!’ the elf was saying.

‘Why don’t you stop production until Santa turns up?’ her daddy asked.

‘If we stop there won’t be enough for the demand and we’ll lose all the stock and sponsorships!’ the elf explained. ‘Santa can get us back on track if he’d just turn up!

‘He must have a tracker, where was he last known to be?’

‘That little planet in the third quadrant …’ the elf said, and beckoned them to a terminal. Her daddy slipped on his glasses as the elf punched up the details on the screen of some precise coordinates.

Her daddy sighed. ‘I could’ve guessed. Earth. All right,’ he conceded, and looked down at Leah. ‘We’ll need to go there, he might have crashed and need our help.’

‘We have a single emergency teleport directly to Santa’s sleigh, you’re welcome to use it!’ the elf said.

‘Molto bene. Allons-y!’

* * *

Seconds after the teleport activated, Leah reorientated herself to find she was standing holding her daddy’s hand on a snow-covered hill in the middle of the countryside, where there was nothing to be seen for miles around. 

‘Nothing here,’ her daddy mused, looking around with a pained expression. ‘He’s not even crashed. He’s just … disappeared.’

‘Why Sanda go?’ Leah asked, confused.

He bit his lip, frowning. ‘If he’d crashed I’d get it, but because he’s disappeared … it gets complicated.’

‘Um, yeah?’

‘Santa exists as a telepathic, manifest entity, powered through children’s belief,’ he told her. ‘Children have powerful imaginations, and when every child on a single planet believes in one thing, that energy gets concentrated, and Santa becomes real. So there must be a child somewhere who doesn’t believe Santa exists. A broken link. The telepathic web’s broken.’ 

Leah froze, her double hearts hammering at ten to the dozen.

‘But we’ll never find this one child,’ he said sadly. ‘And until they get too old for their imagination to help manifest him he won’t appear for anyone, which might not be for five years or so yet. There’s going to be no Christmas for years and years.’

Leah gulped nervously. Her daddy noticed.

‘What?’ he asked her, raising an eyebrow. ‘It’s not you, is it?’

‘Nah!’ Leah burst out.

‘C’mon, Leah,’ her daddy prompted.

She looked at the floor. ‘Mumma said no Sanda.’

‘Mum said he didn’t exist? When did she say that?’

‘Bed.’

‘Oh!’ he interrupted, realising. ‘You heard us talking at bedtime!’

‘Yeah …’

He dropped to her level, kneeling in front of her. ‘Leah ... Your mum really and honestly thinks I actually  _ buy  _ the presents.’

Leah sniffed, gazing at him. 

‘She gave me a list, I checked it twice, she went to bed, I was just going to disappear overnight while she thought I went to the Range. I mean I'm good at a lot of things, but I’m  _ very  _ bad at shopping.’

Leah giggled. 

'Santa is real, Leah. He needs you to believe in him.’

‘So you lie to Ma?’

‘Yes, I did. This is just something she can’t know. But we can’t have Christmas without him.’

She slowly nodded. ‘What do I do?’ 

‘Close your eyes, concentrate, and just believe, Leah.’

She nodded furiously, snapping her eyes shut and clenching her fists, believing with every fibre of her being. For a moment, nothing happened. Then suddenly she heard an animal snort from behind her, and she opened her eyes. Her daddy was grinning as he pointed. She turned to meet the sight of a huge sleigh parked on the snow, with reindeer lined up at the front. The first reindeer had a giant red glowing nose, which was cutting a bright beam of light into the dark, and sitting holding the reins was a large man, with a thick and fluffy white beard and a red suit.

‘... Sanda?’ Leah asked, bewildered.

‘Ho, ho, ho!’ Santa laughed happily, giving an enormous wave. 

Leah looked at her daddy, wide-eyed, and then back at the sleigh. ‘Sanda!’ she yelled happily.

Her daddy jumped up, bounding over to the sleigh. Leah quickly followed, waddling as fast as she could. ‘Santa!’ Daddy greeted him. ‘Merry Christmas!’

‘Merry Christmas to you, Doctor!’ Santa declared happily, and then looked down at Leah. ‘And you, little one, must be Leah! It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

He held out a hand to her. She took it, her tiny one-year-old hand lost in his massive one. He shook it gently.

‘I am forever indebted to you, Doctor! Whatever you did worked!’ Santa said happily.

‘Wasn’t me, it was Leah,’ her daddy said, pointing at her.

Leah shrank back a little. ‘No. Was me.’

‘Pardon?’ Santa asked, confused.

‘Me. I made you disappeared.’

‘How so?’ Santa asked.

Leah looked away, too ashamed to say.

Her daddy winced. ‘Leah didn’t quite believe in your existence. My fault. Sorry.’

Leah cringed, tensing up.

‘Well, as it happens,’ Santa began, leaning to her and smiling somewhere under that massive beard. ‘I know of another little gallifreyan who didn’t believe in me either.’

Her daddy sighed and rolled his eyes. ‘I thought you’d forgotten that.’

Santa laughed again. ‘Ho ho ho! I also couldn’t tell you just how many times he nearly went on the naughty list.’

Leah giggled.

‘If you two could just give me a moment, I just need to finish up Alaska. I will be right back.’

Rudolph reared as slowly the reindeer began to move and suddenly he shot off in the blink of an eye and golden light.

Leah giggled again and moved to hug her daddy. ‘Is Sanda,’ she said happily.

‘I know!’ he replied, beaming. ‘Great, isn’t it? You brought him back!’

‘Cos I din’t b’lieve,’ Leah lamented.

‘Hey you heard him, I didn’t either. Nearly broke the whole of Kasterborous for Santa. And it’s not exactly the most foolproof system. One child stops believing and the whole thing breaks? Come on.’

‘I gonna tell Unka Jack,’ Leah said happily.

‘Ah, no. Can’t do that,’ her daddy said.

‘Bud Unka Jack …’

‘... Is really better off not knowing,’ her daddy said. ‘It’s funny, human adults think Santa is just them tricking their children, but really it’s them who are being tricked. Adults have their own fantasy, and who are we to rob them of the joy of watching their children open presents they think they bought them? Santa’s magic for everyone, and the two just can’t cross over.’

‘Oh,’ Leah said, and nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Get it?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, and raised a finger to her lips. ‘Shush.’

‘Yep, it’s our little secret,’ he said, but seemed a little sad as he spoke the words. She was about to ask why, when as quickly as he’d arrived Santa whooshed back in another blast of golden light, with Rudolph and the reindeer skidding to a stop directly in front of Leah and her daddy.

‘All done, ho ho ho!’ Santa laughed merrily, waving.

‘Where are you off to next?’ her daddy asked.

‘I have a few children in this galaxy, and then I’ll be off to Betelgeuse,’ Santa replied. ‘They believe I’m purple and bring them all small clementines so I’ll have to get changed again.’

‘Thanks, Santa,’ her daddy said with a mock salute. ‘Sorry, I didn’t ask - where exactly  _ are  _ we?’

‘Ho ho ho!’ Santa laughed. ‘I’m afraid you caught me in an embarrassment - a young lad had just switched from the naughty to the nice list and I popped back across the atlantic to give him a present. You’re in Greater London.’

‘Ah. I parked in Lapland,’ her daddy mused.

‘We can’t go home, Dadda,’ Leah realised.

‘Yep, we’re going to have to live here forever,’ he agreed seriously. ‘Unless … we can get a lift?’

He looked directly at Santa. 

Leah beamed. ‘Peas, Sanda, peas?’

Santa gave a loud, belly laugh. ‘Ho ho ho! Well, I can certainly do that. Climb aboard!’

‘Yay!’ Leah cried as her daddy scooped her up and they boarded the sleigh, clambering onto the back.

‘I must confess, I don’t usually have passengers,’ Santa apologised. ‘Hold onto the sides!’

Her daddy wrapped an arm around her, and held onto one of the set of rails.

‘Is everyone ready?’ Santa asked.

‘Yeah!’ Leah cried.

Santa took hold of the reins. ‘To Lapland, Rudolph!’

The reindeer collectively reared and snorted, and then began to run. Leah shrieked and clung tighter to her daddy as they launched into the air, and within moments were soaring in the sky high above the people and life below. They quickly steadied, and maintained a smooth rate. Her daddy held her as they looked over the side, peering down at the sight below. 

‘We’re walking in the aiiir …’ her daddy sang, ‘we’re floating in the moonlit skyyy …’

Leah continued to look down, utterly mesmerised. 

‘The people far belooooow are sleeping as we flyyyy ..’

‘Where that?’ she asked her daddy suddenly, pointing down.

‘Well, that was Colchester that just whizzed by,’ he told her as they continued, flying over mainland Britain, increasing their speed. ‘Aww, King’s Lynn! I haven’t been there in ages.’

He paused, clearly thinking about that.

‘Wait, that’s not in a line …! Santa, you’re not drunk driving reindeer, are you?’

‘Ho ho ho!’ Santa laughed.

‘You’re not filling me with confidence here,’ her daddy said.

They did a hard right, nearly throwing Leah and her daddy out of the sleigh. They reached the edge of England, and started heading over water. Several ships were lit up, shining in the dark. Several honked as they went over, across the rough seas. 

‘North Sea,’ her daddy said.

Leah was beginning to get a bit cold, so she wrapped her arms around her daddy’s middle. He obligingly covered her with his seemingly impenetrable coat as they reached the land on the other side.

‘Norway. Oi, watch out for the mountains, Santa.’

‘Ho ho ho!’ Santa laughed again, as they suddenly soared upwards, just about clearing a host of mountains. Leah squealed and held onto her daddy desperately.

‘Do you actually know how to drive this thing?’ her daddy complained.

‘I believe I’m more qualified than you are to drive your timeship,’ Santa replied.

Her daddy groaned, facepalming. ‘Lillehammer,’ her daddy said as they crossed a rather large expanse of shiny lights. ‘Into Sweden. That must be Östersund,’ he commented, pointing down at a gathering of lights below. Leah could just about make out some cars moving around. 

‘Just a few more minutes!’ Santa cried.

‘Luleå!’ her daddy informed her as they crossed a river and soared over another city. She giggled again and tightened her grip. Even though it was bitterly cold she was very comfortable and warm just holding onto her daddy, closing her eyes.

* * *

'You're going to make her forget, aren't you?' the Doctor supposed as he and Santa trudged to the TARDIS through the snow, the Time Lord holding onto his little girl snuggled up inside his coat, fast asleep.

'I'm afraid so,' Santa replied.

'Oh.'

'Problem?'

The Doctor sighed a little. 'It’s silly, but I guess it was just nice having someone to share the secret with. I’ve got so many it was a bit of a relief.’

Santa said nothing as they stopped outside the TARDIS with the snow falling around them.

'Thanks, Santa,’ the Doctor said.

He smiled. 'You’re welcome, and thank you for bringing me back.’

The Time Lord turned to the TARDIS, ready to leave, before Santa suddenly spoke:

‘She'll remember one day when she's old enough, Doctor. Until then, just keep me alive. In the meantime, I have a special present for you.'

The Doctor turned back, intrigued. ‘Oh, what’s that?’

Santa smiled mischievously. ‘You’ll find out.’

‘Aww, but I want it now,’ the Doctor complained.

‘Ho ho ho!’ Santa laughed, his belly bobbing up and down. ‘Good bye and Merry Christmas, Doctor.’

* * *

The Doctor settled Leah into bed, and then finally returned to his and Rose’s bedroom where she was sound asleep. He slowly and methodically undressed, and slipped into bed beside her.

‘How was Santa?’ Rose suddenly asked.

Slightly startled, the Doctor looked at her lying there on her side, hugging her pillow and staring at him. ‘Um, what?’

‘Come on, if savin’ the universe relied on your ability to shop we’d all be dead,’ she replied, snorting with laughter. ‘Get all our presents?’

‘Yeah, I … oh,’ the Doctor suddenly stopped himself, and sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.

‘Forgot the presents, didn’t ya?’ Rose teased.

‘Yes,’ he groaned and made to get up again, but Rose reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

‘Relax, Santa dropped them all off after you left.’

‘Santa … was here?’

‘Yeah. He came, said you’d be there in a minute, ho-ho-ho’d, we had a drink and he left.’

‘He was … when was … you had a drink with Santa?’

‘Yeah. He had a brandy and I had some Cinzano Bianco.’

‘You’re kidding.’

She smirked. ‘Go to sleep.’

‘No, but Rose …’

‘Night, night, we’ll talk in the mornin’,’ she said, turning over.

He blinked, and looked back up at the ceiling. The cogs in his mind clicked neatly into place as he realised what Santa’s present had been.

‘Thank you, Santa,’ he murmured, briefly glancing back at Rose before turning over and closing his eyes.


End file.
